Ms. NORTON. I thank the gentleman not only for yielding, but for his work in bringing this matter to the floor, and I associate myself with his remarks and with the remarks of my good friend on the other side of the aisle.
Seldom do we get an opportunity to applaud and find an appropriate way to recognize a truly historic figure. That is what we are about to do a week from today when we give our highest honor, the Congressional Gold Medal, to former Senator Edward W. Brooke.
Senator Kennedy would very much have wanted to be present next Wednesday. He quickly gathered his two-thirds of the signatures on his side to give the medal to Senator Brooke, the first African American to be popularly elected to the United States Senate. We are aware that there were African Americans in the Senate during the Civil War, but that was before the South had come back into the Union. So 100 years or so were to go by before another African American was to be elected.
But what an improbable man; a Republican from the then Democratic, still Democratic State of Massachusetts, where only 2 percent of the residents were African American. It is a tribute to the State of Massachusetts, to be sure. It is a tribute to the Republican Party that a man of this quality would step forward.
My interest, of course, comes from his roots. Senator Edward Brooke was born and raised in the District of Columbia. He is who he is because he was born in the segregated District of Columbia, overcame those barriers and went on to see his life for what he could make of it.
Senator Brooke is going to be 90 years old 2 days before the Congress awards this medal. He is in extraordinary shape. I love to hear him talk, because he talks with such eloquence, as if he were still on the Senate floor. But it should be known that Senator Brooke has had breast cancer, and obviously he has some of the infirmities associated with age. Among those, however, is not his signature modesty.
He has worked diligently for the D.C. House Voting Rights Act, which we are close, if we just continue, to finally getting this year. He called some of his friends, his fellow Republicans and Democrats in the Senate, and I thought it would be quite appropriate to give him the medal now in the year that we are seeking to pass the D.C. Voting Rights Act, which he cosponsored time and again when he was in the Senate.
So, his modesty notwithstanding, we started down this road, got our two-thirds in the House as well, and we are about now to welcome this historic figure home again. Remember, we have had only three African American Senators and the first African American President, and he is going to be here, because he recognizes the historic significance of Senator Brooke's life.
You should know, however, that this man came through the fire to where he is. Yes, he was born to parents who worked in the government and educated their children, but he went off to fight in World War II in the 366th Combat Infantry Regiment, which was a segregated regiment. He advanced to be a combat decorated officer. He went to law school at Boston University School of Law and edited their Law Review, and that is how they got the prize that is Edward Brooke there in the first place.
